Acceptance-based regulation of
pain, which focuses on the allowing of
pain and
pain related thoughts and emotions, was found to modulate
pain. However, results so far are inconsistent regarding different
pain modalities and indices. Moreover, studies so far often lack a suitable control condition, focus on behavioral
pain measures rather than physiological correlates, and often use between-subject designs, which potentially impede the evaluation of the effectiveness of the strategies. Therefore, we investigated whether acceptance-based strategies can reduce subjective and physiological markers of
acute pain in comparison to a control condition in a within-subject design. To this end, participants (
N = 30) completed 24 trials comprising 10 s of heat
pain stimulation. Each trial started with a cue instructing participants to welcome and experience
pain (acceptance trials) or to react to the
pain as it is without employing any regulation strategies (control trials). In addition to
pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings, heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) were recorded. Results showed significantly decreased
pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings for acceptance compared to control trials. Additionally, HR was significantly lower during acceptance compared to control trials, whereas SC revealed no significant differences. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of acceptance-based strategies in reducing subjective and physiological
pain responses relative to a control condition, even after short training. Therefore, the systematic investigation of acceptance in different
pain modalities in healthy and
chronic pain patients is warranted.